acer 8920g

Hi all, im new on here. I need some advice on my acer aspire 8920g - 6a4g32bn

Its currently started to lag abit when using programs etc... its even lagging while im typing this right now!
ive done malware/spyware/and a boot scan and nothing was found. its currently running 32bit vista and its got the intel t5750 processor. The cpu is most of the time at 100% even when im not doing anything. I was looking into upgrading to windows 7 64bit or upgrading the processor to a T9300.

What would you reccomend, before i go out spending money?

Thanks in advance

 

More diagnosis.
What's causing the CPU to run at 100% most of the time? Crack open Task Manager and have a peek.
What's your power setting right now?
Have you cleaned out your fan intake and vents? If they get clogged, the CPU may throttle because it's not getting cooled properly.

 

on task manager it varies... sometimes sidebar, sometimes explorer. I booted into safe mode and loaded up photoshop ad it worked perfectly in there but on normal mode it lags as does other things.
Just checked the power mode and its on high performance.... but the cpu speed was on minimum so ive increased it to maximum.
How would you reccomend cleaning the intake? it doesnt look to be clogged all the slots are clear...

thanks

 

You can safely remove the bottom of the laptop without losing your warranty - should be a six or seven screw operation. Take a compressed air can and blow any dust out of the mesh screen in your fan intake vents, then clean out the copper grille the fan blows on.

 

cheers for that dude. it seems to be working better now after moving the cpu speed slider on the epower management, but i was looking into upgrading to windows 7 64 bit? would you reccomend this? how do i find out if my hardware is 64 bit compatible and can get these drivers? thanks

 

The 8920 is not listed in the acer eligible list. Also it appears they have not made an attempt to provide win 7 drivers (32 or 64 bit). So it looks like acer say no to a win 7 upgrade for that machine.
Microsoft offer a Win 7 upgrade advisor which can spot some of the obvious problems (but not all).
It appears you will not have a lot of official support if you try to do a Win 7 upgrade at this time.

 

Ayarbee, that Acer eligible list is only for models that qualify for a free upgrade through Acer.
Any machine that can run Vista can run 7, especially considering most Vista drivers will install and work flawlessly on 7. (this isn't another XP-to-Vista fiasco)

MrSingh, just burn your recovery DVDs and the drivers & applications disc beforehand, and after installing Windows 7, get device drivers from the part manufacturer (Nvidia, Intel, etc.) for any part that doesn't work, and use the ones on the drivers & apps disc for the custom hardware (the Tuba needs the Realtek drivers your machine came with).

 

Thanks, TehSuigi, I am aware of the meaning of the eligible list, merely referring to what appeared to be the absence of official support from acer.
Interestingly my other comment about drivers is no longer true, they have now appeared on the acer website (acer.co.uk anyway).

 

It seems your Laptop is badly infected until no AVs can fix I guess.
Try Re-install the OS(reformat) or use your D2D Recovery Discs/Partition.
If the problem still exist after reformat, you need to clean up your laptop. DUST is your enemy.
If still occur, call Acer.

 

TehSuigi - thanks for the help mate... i will go down that route eventually when i get sometime, currently at university and i cant afford to start playing around with the laptop just incase it doesnt go according to the plan lol. so all i need to do is backup my documents, backup the drivers etc and then install win 7 from scratch? or can i just do the upgrade? and ill be fine with installing the 64bit version, or has acer not released 64bit drivers for my machine? thank you

just checked on the acer website for drivers and there only seems to be the bluetooth drivers for windows 7 and nothing else. So would this mean i would be at a deadend with my audio working or any other acer specific things on my laptop that they have not released a windows 7 driver for? sorry if i sound dumb.... im probably over confusing my self.

thanks

 

No worries MrSingh, I'm happy to help.
You can perform the in-place upgrade, provided that you're not going from a 32-bit Vista to a 64-bit Win7, or a different product version (Home Premium to Pro, Business to Home Premium, etc.)
I did an in-place once, moving from Windows Vista Ultimate to the Windows 7 RC - worked perfectly. Kept everything intact. I'd still do a backup just in case.

Otherwise, you've got the plan right. Backup documents, burn the Drivers & Apps disc, burn the Vista recovery DVDs (just in case), and do a custom install (i.e. boot from the 7 DVD).
Again, Vista drivers will work on Win7, and there certainly are 64-bit Vista drivers for the 8920G.

 

cool, so because i will be going from vista 32bit to win7 64bit, most likely ill go for the ultimate, i will have to do a clean install?
to burn the drivers and app backup... is there a specific way i can do it on my acer, i.e. is there a software that will do that for me? I made the back up dvds when i first switched on the laptop when i bought it...
I could only find the 64bit win7 driver for the bluetooth on the acer site.... but like you said the 64bit vista drivers will work fine so i will just get them from the website.
oh and the main point for doing this upgrade is to improve the performance off my laptop.... will i see a significant improvement? Its because i use alot of 3d design programs where i need to render etc and also use photoshop alot so i want the system to work to its best.

thanks again dude!

 

That's right - a clean install for you.
Why bother with Ultimate? It's got a bunch of only slightly useful features that doesn't justify the costs, in my humble opinion. Go for Professional (don't worry, they fixed the editions - everything in Home Premium's in Professional, unlike Vista).

Yes, Acer eRecovery should have an option to burn that Drivers & Apps disc in the same menu where the Burn factory restore DVDs option is.

Well, I did notice that Windows 7 is a lot perkier than Vista, and it manages memory better. I'm not sure if 3D design programs and Photoshop will really benefit as much - it's possible the transition to 64-bit could yield boosts, those would be improved by hardware upgrades more than anything. But hardware's a lot trickier to upgrade if you're not skilled with computers, so leave it as is.

 

thanks for that! ill look into professional and ultimate and see whats useful to me. Yea one of the main reasons i wanted a 64bit o/s was because i was looking to upgrade the memory from 4gb to about 8 but i realised i cant on my laptop, as apparently my motherboard doesnt handle more than 4gb. Do you know if this is correct? Im sure i can install another HDD as there is an empty slot for one but i dont think i can do any other hardware upgrades, unless you can give me a few ideas on this? my acer is 8920g the 6a4g32bn model.

thanks again dude!

 

The PM965 chipset can only handle 4 GB in most cases, but even then a 64-bit operating system has its advantages; I find it far more stable than the tries-to-accomodate-every-single-piece-of-legacy-software 32-bit version.

You can indeed install a second hard drive in your system, but you require the bracket from Acer to do so. Give 'em a ring and see where they direct you.

You can always bump up the CPU and GPU, but those are rather low on the bang-for-your-buck scale (unless you're running CPU-intensive programs or games).

 

yea i did look into the T9300 processor i think it was? but cant seem to get one cheap lol. what does this acer bracket look like? as i opened up the rear to clean out the fan etc and i couldnt seem to see a bracket holding the HDD in place :s

 

Not 100% certain myself - any 8920G users out there willing to help?

 

just found out that my current processor will handle 64bit os and ive found another thread on this forum about upgrading the processor so will look into that aswell. You wouldnt know hard is it to change processors on these would you? thanks again!

 

TehSuigi - had another question if you dont mind....

Ive looked into upgrading the processor to a X9000. Would this be suitable for my 8920g? hope you can help

Thanks

 

Answered in the other topic, mrsingh.
The T5750 will handle 64-bit easily, though. Virtualization is a different story though - if you want to use Windows XP Mode in Windows 7 Pro/Ultimate, a CPU upgrade would be needed.

 

thanks dude! i think i will look for a T9500 instead then. Could i be a pain and ask you what the process is of upgrading my CPU? Obviously changing the actual thing will be the first step lol.

thanks